Alice Stuck in Time
by Brandidy
Summary: Bullies have made Alice's life miserable, but will she want to go back when a handsome Mad man wearing a strange hat and a guy who loves too easily take her to a land filled with things you couldn't even begin to imagine up? Read and find out!


I hate toilets. I hate them with the deepest fiber of my being, and no, maybe I'm not fully taking into account the fact that they are a place to use the restroom, and will dispose of the results, but I don't care.

All I care about it the face that my head is stuck in one right now, and that I can distinctly hear the giggling of females. My head was brought out of the water, and I sucked in the air before I was plunged back into the depths of the five inch deep toilet bowl.

"Honestly, Alice. Your infatuation with commodes is a little scary." A girl standing outside of the stall said. I could hear the impatient clicking of her heels on the linoleum tile of the bathroom floor.

"I'll get right on that." I said, barely finishing before they shoved my head back in. Maybe I should just fake dying. That should give them a good scare.

"Do you think she's learned her lesson?" The female with her hands currently on the back of my neck said. Her nails were digging into my skin. It felt like a mad dog was sinking it's teeth into my flesh, and being really stubborn about when to let go.

"I don't know, why don't we ask her?" The girl said, and the others laughed and lifted my head up. "Have you learned your lesson, Alice?"

I turned my head to Veronica, the girl that was the reason all of this was happening. I spit out the water I had taken into my mouth, it landing on her face and shirt. "Piss off." I told her, and then I felt the kick to the gut, and my face being placed into the toilet bowl once more.

All of this because I accidentally hit her hand bag walking up the isle in the classroom this morning. I wish I knew then that this was going to happen. I wouldn't have apologized, or felt slightly guilty. Boarding school was definitely not what my mother had told me it'd be. One more year of this, then my involuntary fiance will be taking me to get married and move me off to wherever he wants me. Is that even legal? Who knows, but my family has arranged it, therefor, it must happen.

As I walked back to my dorm, I tried not to grimace as I stepped off of the stairs and walked pass the teaching stations. Class had long since ended, which I was thankful for. I didn't want anyone seeing me drenched with cuts along my face.

I turned, noticing my shoes were leaving tracks behind me. If someone were to see them, they could just follow them straight to my dorm. I sighed and took off my shoes and sweater, left in a soaking wet white button up, once again thankful for the abandon hallways. I carried my wet things until I exited the building, and began to walk on the grass. I was so close to the dorms.

"Alice?" I heard someone ask, and I turned, seeing Davis Preston walking towards me. I turned my head and grimaced, then turned back, placing a bright smile right over my frown.

"Yes?" I asked.

He walked up to me and laughed. "Why the hell are you soaking wet?" He stepped a little closer, obviously looking at my soaking white shirt. I laughed nervously, and covered my chest.

"Just a little prank some of the girls were pulling." I told him, and he finally looked at my face.

"Oh, well, hey, we're having a little get together in the boys dorm, do you want to join?" He said, his eyebrows raised.

Get together? Yeah right, I've heard about the boy's dorm parties. Davis and a few others parents own the place, so they don't get in trouble much and have parties nearly every Saturday night, which get raided still, but they just continue to have them.

"No thanks. I'm really tired, and I just want to go to bed." I told him, still trying to sound nice. His hand reached up, twisting my blonde hair that was hanging down by my waist.

"Are you sure I can't persuade you? It'll just be for a minute." He said smiling. I wanted to shove passed him and just go to bed. "Everyone's expecting you to be there."

"I'm not really dressed for a party." I told him, just trying to get by.

"I've got a shirt you can borrow. Come on, Alice. Don't be a prude." He said, inching closer.

I don't want him going to tell everyone that I refused to come, then I'd just get beat up more often. All of the girls like to attack me after class often, and even when some of the teachers see, they do nothing about it. So much for justice.

I finally sighed, putting my smile back on. "Fine, you've convinced me." I told him, letting him take my hand and drag me to the boys dorms.

When he opened the door, music flooded out. Someone stood behind me, and I was vaguely aware that they were trying to dance with me. Davis yanked me to him a little roughly and pulled me through the crowded room, towards a door. It opened up, and a couple were laying on the bed.

"Get out of here, mate." Davis told the guy, and he got up, grabbing his shirt, and the girl crawled off the bed and brushed past me harshly. Davis walked over to his chest and opened it, pulling out a tank top. I didn't have to think too hard at why he had female clothing in his bedroom.

I looked at him questioningly when he didn't leave the room for me to change.

"Oh come on, Alice. It's not like it's nothing I can't see right now." He said playfully. I guess that was true, but I had more dignity than that.

"I'll just step into the closet." I told him, opening the door.

It smelled foul in here, and I was pretty sure I stepped in something alive. It reminded me of when I had went to my brothers University dorm to visit a few years ago and all of his clothes were everywhere, surrounded by left over meals. My parents had yelled at him, and all of his friends made fun of him making up names and teasing him. How they survived constantly in that odour was beyond me.

I took off my shirt, and was pulling the tank top above my head when the closet door opened up, and Davis came in.

His lips were on my neck and his hands were groping me. Terror shot through my brain so quickly, my eyesight started to blacken.

I began screaming at him, but his hand covered my mouth, and he pulled me out, shoving me at the bed. Luckily, I bounced off in the direction of the door. I yelled more, trying to stand up so that I could run. Get away. I knew that if I made it out of that door, I was going to leave. Not just this dorm, but this school. The school would never take my word to Davis', and my mother probably wouldn't either. They'd make me stay here with him.

This could not be happening. How stupid could I be?

"Bloody hell, shut the fuck up!" He yelled at me, grabbing my leg to pull me back to the bed. His hand covered my mouth once more as he reached for my skirt, but I wouldn't give in that easily. I kneed him in the sternum, causing him to roll over on the bed, and had grabbed the door handle, when he kicked the door closed from behind me and slammed me up against the wall.

I knew I was crying and biting at his hand, but he just kept his hold on me.

_**No, no, no**_.

He reached for my skirt again, this time pulling it down slightly, when the door opened up, and a man in a curious outfit came in.

He looked in before he saw us, and Davis stepped back. "It's just a game between us, mate." He tried to say, but the man hit him in the face, and kicked him down to the floor in the most graceful of manners. He picked the boys head up and pointed it at me, letting Davis see me.

"Does that look like a game to you? Does she look like she's in a playful mood?" He asked, his smooth voice seeping into my pores and cloaking my insides like silk. He slammed Davis' head back into the floor, his nose sputtering out blood.

He then turned towards me, and grabbed my shirt off of the floor before taking my hand. The warmth engulfed me, and he walked a few short feet, then began reaching for the closet door.

"This is the closet," I told him, trying to dig my heels into the floor. He turned around and wrapped his hands around my waist, then opened the door, falling down backwards onto the closet floor with his hands still around me firmly, pulling me in with him.

I had the overwhelming feeling I was falling for much longer than I had initially expected. The hole seemed to be endless, and I wanted to scream, but couldn't catch enough breath. It felt like I was dying. 17 years of living a meaningless life, and now it was finally coming to an end. How dreadful and pointless.

My mind seemed to be generating images in the darkness. Family portraits, stuffed animals from childhood, even my father's old thinking chair. They all seemed to be falling with me, surrounding me with painful memories I had tried to lock away from fear of the horrid memories.

My father's funeral had been the most horrid of them all. Seeing him lying there at the time hadn't been so bad because I had yet to realize that he would never speak to me again, never call me his daughter, never come to me again for advice on what he should do. He had once told me I was the most just person he had ever met. He told me that the line between right and wrong was very defined and thick to me. Well, I knew his death was anything but right.

It was then that I felt the feeling stop, and the world came into focus, as I fell to the ground. I looked around and tried to stand, but my head hit the ceiling. I peeked out of my now closing eyes in all directions, trying to figure out where I could possibly be, but I had no clue. Then, my clothes fell upon me as well.

I quickly put them on my body and looked down, straightening them out. My skirt was a little ripped, and I made a mental note to find more clothes as soon as possible.

Plan B. I searched for a way out. I found a small tunnel with a light coming out of the end, but when I crawled over to it, I had gravely misjudged the height of it, seeing as my hand could hardly fit out of the end of it. That was literally the only way out, and I was much too large to go through.

I sighed, trying to calm my breathing. There had to be another way, right? There just had to be. Think, Alice, think.

I sat down to try and consider all options, and tripped over something. Looking down, I saw a small table with a vial of liquid.

"_Drink it_." A male voice said, somehow echoing throughout the room a few times before it finally stopped.

"And who's to say it's not poison and you are not just playing games with me?" I replied, shaking my head at the bottle.

"_Does this look like a game to you?_" It took me a few moments to place the voice, but once I did, I was opening my mouth to speak when it interrupted me._ "You aren't getting out of this room until you drink that. Your choice, love._"

"I am **not** your 'love'." I said, then picked up the bottle. "Please don't be acid." I said, before opening the lid and taking a small sip.

Nothing happened.

I sat it down, now angry.

"You promised me freedom if I drank it. Hold up your end of the deal!" I yelled.

The room started to shake, and I felt like I was falling to the floor. But, no. The room was getting bigger. Or maybe, I was getting smaller? Who knows.

The table began to get larger until it was nearly reigning over me, and the vial now as tall as me. Once everything stopped, I looked around, sighting the light from the tunnel, and running towards it.

"_See you soon, Alice._" The voice said, before I made it to the end, and sprinted out into the light.

"Not if I can help it," I mumbled, then came to a complete stop. In front of me was colorful trees. The leaves had a sort of shimmer to them, and a few large insects buzzed about, with a sing song tune to them. The flowers were opening and closing, almost like eyes blinking.

"Ow!"

I jumped and looked down at a plate on the pathway. "What in the-" Before I could finish, the plate stood up, eyes opening and it's mouth turning into a frown.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to stare?" The plate, which sounded female, said, huffing and walking away. This place was just getting curiouser.

I began to walk down the path again, that I could have swore had been red, but was now a pale green. I heard whispers to the side of me, but when I looked, all I saw was the swaying of flowers and trees. I shrugged and began to walk off, when something grabbed out at my leg.

I looked down, seeing the vine attempting to grab me once more. "Who are you?" A voice asked.

"Funny, I could ask you the same question." I said, placing my hands in front of my chest. "It's impolite to unjustly try to harm someone." I said, gesturing to the sneaky vine crawling towards me.

"My apologies, then." The vine crept back into the woods, and I curtsied.

"Thank you, my name is Alice."

"Alice?"

"Alice?"

"Did she say her name was Alice?"

"Oh no, is he coming then?"

"We must hide."

I only caught a few of the things said, being there were so many. "He? Who is coming?" I asked, but no one replied anymore. "Hello?"

When I got only silence in return, I turned to walk down the path once more, now more cautious. Something was coming, and it left me with a knot in my stomach. Why were they so afraid?

I had been walking for a few minutes, when I heard some noise in the trees beside me. "Hello? Is someone there?" I heard more noise. "Please come out." I asked more pleadingly.

I heard a sigh, then I saw a leg, then a body.

A man with quite the handsome face walked towards me. He wore a hat with bunny ears coming out on both sides.

"Who are you?" I asked, stepping away from him, but he kept coming closer.

"I am Fredrick, Alice." A smile playing on his lips.

"How do you know my name?"

"Everyone knows you here." He told me simply, then offered me his arm. "Come along, I have many places to show you."

I scoffed, walking ahead of him on the path, and he hurried to catch up with me. "Where am I?"

He laughed. "Why name it? It's whatever you want it to be. Name it. Imagine it. Create it." He told me, then pointed to the right, which showed a large palace in a valley. The land around the place was dead, but inside showed large beautiful blooming trees and rose bushes. "That is the Queen of Heart's Palace, but many just call her the Red Queen. I'd advise against you ever going near there." He told me, then pointed to the left, where there was another valley holding a city of tilted buildings that looked like a tea part gone wrong. "That is The City that Completely Runs off of Time, or just TCTCROOT for short, if you'd like." He said, smiling down at me.

"Yes, I'm sure I'll remember that." I mumbled him.

"That's where we're headed now. I'd love to show you more, but we are on a schedule." He told me, withdrawing a large clock from his jacket that most definitely should not have been able to fit in there, pulling my arm as he picked up speed.

"Why are we going there? Why can I not just go home?" I asked, but he ignored me.

"You're going to love it here, Alice. Your father did." After he finished that sentence, He placed his hand in front of his mouth. "I mean-"

"My father? What do you know about my father?" I yelled at him. Now I knew he wasn't telling me something.

"I've said too much." He told me. "You'll be staying with the Tweedle brothers. They'll take good care of you. I wouldn't let you go there if they wouldn't." He told me assuredly.

"And why exactly would you care?" I asked. This man was like no one I had ever met before, and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad yet.

"Well, because I love you." He told me.

My feet stopped moving and I looked at him, my mouth nearly scraping the ground. "What?"

He walked up to me, clasping my hands in his. "I love you. I've always loved you. But, I will wait until you're ready. It's okay if you're not ready to return the feeling." He said, then smiled his sweet smile, and pulled me off down the road again.

I was still in utter shock when we arrived at a building shaped like a teacup. "Here we are!" He told me before knocking on the door.


End file.
